A black mass, a genuine salacious ritual, is on the horizon. One with a sturdy and truly wild theme that will make this pitch-black year of 2024 ominously glow in darkened colors. Unspeakable and unholy rites that happen in forlorn corners of haunted woods and away from prying eyes.
But the wait will still be long until that time. So, in the meantime, we’ll take in some sermons to get the Dark Lord’s attention. The ones of the Black Flame. Halphas just returned from the undead to the stage and an unholy hunger fills them. Dark greetings to thee.
Ah, yes. After all that doom ‘n’ gloom lately, what better break to take than a neat slab of Scandinavian Black Metal. A sound that slowly seems to be as ancient as the Princes ov Hell. But the genre is still a welcome companion on this here zine. True to its vocation, Sermons of the Black Flame rushes onto the scene with a mighty roar. Rough-hewn and thunderous earworms, clad in best Black Metal finery, attack yer eardrums straight from the start. And whilst keeping pretty much to the confines of the dreaded culprits of the ’90s, this record contains enough atmosphere and variation to please the modern ear.
For once, the intro – Into The Void – truly speaks. Starting with howls of the damned and a melodic yet meaty guitar entry into Black Flame‘s realm, the second track – The Draconian Path – thunders straight into the meat and potatoes of this record with merciless blast beats, grim tremolos, and – a pretty steamy solo toward the end. And let’s not forget the band’s new vocalist. Berith truly impressed us with his elastic performance, from a rough croaky rasp, over some ominous monologue and discourse here and there, to some desperate screams, it’s all there.
You’ll even find some sort of spoken ‘Congressus cum Daemone’ on the excellent Disciples Of Dark Gods. This track majestically gallivants across the spectrum of red-blooded Black Metal, by the way. And you even get some sort of chorus from the dead on The Architect’s Eye. And all of the above describes the essence of Sermons of the Black Flames best.
The band embedded enough melody and atmosphere into the overall traditional grime to keep things interesting and fresh. And avoiding hitting the threshold into other blackened sub-genres is indeed a delicate balancing act. You do need to keep these records above the fold and keep them from slinking off into the masses filled with dime-a-dozen Extreme Metal records that crowd an overpopulated genre.
The way Halphas play their Black metal is yet another cornerstone of this record. Their brand of vile extremes is always straight in your face. Sometimes at a powerful, slow-marching, almost majestic pace. And at other times with an uncannily ferocious speed and aggression that sometimes took our breath away. Pitch-black evil coming straight at you, like. The record also darkly shines with that knack for almost Carach Angren-esque storytelling. And this indeed injects a lot of allure into what would otherwise be an overly blackened piece.
Ultimately though, Sermons of the Black Flame turned into one of the feistiest high-octane Black Metal records on RMR to date. The aforementioned inclusion of melodics, the abundant monologues, hints to rituals, and excellent songwriting, all turned into a remarkable multilayered amalgamation of the best cuts this genre has on offer. But – by its complexity – the album ain’t easy to get into. And Halphas just about avoided shipwrecking on that dangerous reef. In other words, what sounded like one of those straightforward BM pieces, turned into a massive listening session over here. And we still haven’t yet grasped all that’s going on here on Black Flame. Some mighty sermons we caught ourselves, indeed.
And to close this review, I’d like to quote Tempestas, the mighty drummer: “We don’t want to write songs that go down easily and that you get tired of after three listens. For us, the artistic aspect and the philosophy behind it are very important.”
There you go, well said and mission fully accomplished. Great record.
Ed’s note: This record garnered a coveted space on the Malevolent 2024 Series. Have a read!
Record Rating: 8/10 | Label: Folter Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 29 February 2024